Under the Moonlight
by KuraiFriendku
Summary: How different would the plot of Alola be if there was not one protagonist, but two?


It started when she awoke with a stir. Middle of the night, much warmer than the girl was used to as she (yet again) kicked her dark fuzzy blanket off the side of the bed and turned on her stomach, face mushing into her bean pillow. An Alolan breeze burst into her bedroom through the open seaside window. When it reached her, she groaned.

"Sun." Her call was soft but stern, her face still mangled in the deformed shape of the pillow. It was more a beckon to herself to collect her wandering thoughts and guide them toward her universal center. Follow the light, she commanded of them, a few ideas glancing her way and perhaps shambling toward the dim penetration of their otherwise dark world. Outside, beyond the comfort of her home, night still loomed down heavier than it ever had since they arrived on the island a week ago. The wind was picking up now, rustling their curtains enough to make noise.

The girl raised, slowly, pushing herself into a slouched sit by dragging her legs over the side of the bed and resting her feet on the abandoned dark blanket. Everything felt heavy. It must have been sometime early in the morning; the wet stench of morning due piggybacked along with the welcomingly cool breeze. She could hardly see the bedframe that grazed her arm as she tried to stand, stumbling until finally gaining balance for her tired body. Her mind was still fogged and dark.

"Sun," the girl called again, this time a bit louder and one hand immediately grabbing for the bunk bed ladder. She paused, making sure to keep herself stable, then fumbled for the second rung. It wasn't a long climb, but those weren't the beds her or her brother had used prior to setting foot on their new island home, and the light of the moon projected on the entirely opposite end of the house, of little use to her.

Though, despite the setbacks, our protagonist was able to feel her way to the second-story bed, relief washing over her when she reached for another rung and was finally met with the soft comfort of her brother's bed. A second hand felt for the material before she hoisted herself up halfway. After another two steps, her whole torso hovered over the bed.

"Sun!"

Her call was met with the faint sound of bed springs as she felt a shift, what she could guess was Sun turning to lay on his side.

She huffed. Reaching out into the darkness and grabbing hold of her brother's exposed arm, it gave little in way of resistance when she first shook it but pulled away just a second later, and the girl threw her hands down on the bed. "Sun, wake up!"

"Nn...Moon?" Her brother shifted again, groggy voice from the broken slumber that he held firmly around himself like a warm, fuzzy blanket.

"Wake up, Sun!"

He held up his arm to ward off the girl's adamant attacks of throwing hands down on him. He could faintly see an outline of her silhouette amidst the unlit room. "What time is it?"

The second Sun shut his mouth, without missing a beat, Moon leaned forward to give her reply. "Nighttime."

"Okay, but...what is it, like, one-?"

"I dunno. I can't sleep."

"Go back to sleep, Moon."

"I just said I can't!"

Moon's brother groaned when he felt the weight of the bed shift, a sudden force now plopped down on the edge of the bunk with her feet propped up on a ladder rung and palms pressed into the blanket to steady herself. Her balance was still off, and being up this abnormally high without being able to see the floor made her head feel woozy. She shut her eyes. "Something's wrong, Sun."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, just...just something. Maybe it's my anxiety."

"Probably."

The air grew cold, empty, and Moon could tell that her brother wasn't putting a lot of effort into the conversation. It was early, though, and unsatisfied with the lackluster answer, instead of pestering him for more foggy ones, she scooted over a few inches so that the ladder was out of her way, then opened her eyes. The flickering of stars out their window granted just enough light to see an outline of her brother on the bed. Sleeping again, probably. He wasn't much of a night person.

She prepared for herself to slide off the top bunk like she always had. The bed was foreign to her, and the blanket let go of her sooner than anticipated, but she managed to propel herself forward and hit the hardwood floor with a soft _thump_ on the soles of her feet, wobbling for a second but regaining her balance soon enough. Still, a dizziness washed through her like the Alolan tide just outside of their new home. From a lack of sleep, she thought. Constantly waking up every half-hour couldn't be healthy for a human body, and this is what her body got for...waking her up. Every half-hour. It wasn't her best night.

"I need a glass of water," she muttered to herself, briefly rubbing a hand over her tired eyes before trusting her night vision to guide her to the door. It did, for the most part, save for a few stumbles and once almost tripping over a box. Her brother had fully fallen back into slumber; the only person she was concerned with waking was her mom, and even that was an afterthought once she had finally reached her fingers around the cold metal knob.

Their living room was much better lit, thankfully. Moonlight flooded the home from its side windows, casting dim, elongated shadows across Moon's field of vision. The added light, however, only increased her feeling of illease fueled by the inhuman silence that lingered over her like a suffocating blanket.

To say the least, it was quiet. The kind of quiet she should have been used to hearing at this early hour. She choked it up to nerves.

Moon didn't take long to reach their small open kitchen. A few counters divided the eating space from the rest of the room, the floor tiles marking where its actual boundaries were. Her socks gave a slide to her steps as she reached for one of the only cabinets that had been filled since their week of stay. "Filled" being in quotation marks. A few empty cups, some bowls, plates, but not enough to actually take up all the space inside. Most of that was in the sink.

The girl grabbed one of the cups and stuck it under the faucet, pushing aside a few dirty dishes, too sleepy to make sure hers was actually clean.

She left it half-empty from the top, shut off the water and took a sip. The taste of crap in her mouth wasn't putrid enough to turn her away from the relief of quenching a dry throat she didn't know she had. It didn't do much to help her head, but at least her body seemed to calm a bit. There was an uneasy feeling hanging around her that was too subdued for her to care. Moon downed the cup in three gulps.

Her eyes vacantly glossed over the pile of dirty dishes overflowing the sink. She sighed, setting the empty cup on the counter and told herself that she'd get it in the morning (despite knowing damn well that she wasn't going to).

Her thoughts were interrupted, however, by a thunderous tap from the window. The foggy girl took a moment to interpret the sound, then poked her head up towards the moonlit side of their window-walled house. She was faced with nothing.

Confused, the thought ran through Moon's mind that perhaps the glass had confused some local wildlife. She approached the windows with a naive caution. There was nothing on the deck that her eyes could make out, and certainly not a creature that had run into their window. It might have scrambled for the underbrush upon taking damage, though that would require an incredible amount of speed that most simple ratata weren't able to-

She blinked. Her eyes must have been playing tricks with her. There was absolutely nothing in site when she approached the balcony, but now, suddenly, standing before it with her hand on the doorknob, a large yellow figure filled the space that had been empty just seconds ago. Well, no, its body seemed black, but it had these BIG shell… _things_ that just kinda came out and-

-and it stared at her. She couldn't really see eyes in the dim light of the moon, but the way it threw its head after another moment made her certain that it was looking at her. Moon took a step back from the creature with her hand no longer on the knob. It hardly moved, save for an up-and-down motion that almost seemed like hovering. It wasn't touching the ground a bit.

"Hello?" Moon called out with her back arched away from the creature. Its head (or what she assumed to be) tilted, and the girl bit her lip. The natives. How'd the natives say it? "A...alola?"

It let out a loud, almost inquisitive coo, the large orange crest on its head rustling like feathers, the yellow shell-wings moving out to reveal more of its black body. Moon took a step forward with her hand outstretched. Not that it mattered. In another blink, the thing was gone, leaving nothing behind but a yellow trail of blur to the other end of their house.

It took a moment to process which side of the building it was heading to, but once she realized, Moon let out a sharp gasp. "The window!"

She flung herself as fast as her legs could carry her through the door she left open to get a drink, past the blanket she threw on the floor, past her brother sleeping soundly on the top bunk. Not even half a minute later, the girl slammed the window shut with enough force to wake the whole neighborhood up. And locked it.

The house was silent again after that, but the kind of silence that didn't bother her. A calm aftermath ensuing the storm.

Moon took a brief moment to soak it in, eyes piercing through the scene outside her window. Dark, quiet, the only movement from the lapping shore in the distant. The way the night was supposed to be.

"Meow?"

The moonlight didn't touch her part of the home, but even in darkness she could tell what was making the sound. Her eyes flipped through the black of her room to find a silhouette pawing aimlessly from her bed.

She felt her shoulders drop at the sight. "Did...did you see that thing too?"

"Maw!"

Moon took one last glance at the empty window before making her way back to bed. She was tired, anxious, and now on-edge on top of everything else. The day following would be big for her; she knew she needed sleep. Not like sleep cared about her needs anymore.

"You saw it and ran for my bed, didn't you?"

"Myah…" It pressed its paws over its head, looking away from its owner in shame.

Moon seated herself on the edge of her bed, palms pressing into the mattress before one hand reached up to playfully poke at the kitten's head. "Some guard meowth you are."

"Meow!"

"I know, I know. That thing was...intense."

"Moon, I told you to go back to bed."

The sister glanced up at the bunk above her that housed the twin lucky enough to get sleep. She bit her lip in annoyance, but then relaxed, the family meowth stepping into her lap and letting out a purr as it rubbed its head against her stomach.

She turned her focus back on the pet. "Yeah, he's right. I'd really like to get some shut-eye if I could."

"Owth?"

Moon let out a sigh at what she could only assume to be the baby doll eyes it normally made. "Okay, okay. You can stay in my bed tonight. Just promise you won't suffocate me this time, deal?"

Meowth sprang to the top of her bed while she settled down. Her head on the pillow, it curled up beside her and brushed its tail against her cheek. The final purr was let out as an attempt to lure Moon into slumber. A successful attempt at it, might I add.


End file.
